Technology: Strongarmed in Japan

Three Japanese men are nursing broken arms and bruised egos after losing an arm wrestle to an arcade machine that distributors say "even women should be able to beat".

The "Arm Spirit" machine pitted players against a mechanical arm said to represent the strength of a French maid, a chihuahua dog, a drunken martial arts master and a professional wrestler. However, these adversaries proved too tough for three men, who broke their arms wrestling with the mechanical appendage.

As a result the machine's distributor, Atlus this week withdraw it from 150 arcades. "We think that maybe some players get over-excited and twist their arms in an unnatural way," an Atlus spokesman said. "The machine isn't that strong, much less so than a muscular man."